Your Right to Know

The case of a landlady accused of fair-housing violations because she refused to rent apartments
to undercover anti-discrimination testers could get a final decision from Ohio’s civil-rights
agency today.

Helen Grybosky told the testers who said they had disability dogs that pets weren’t allowed or
required an extra deposit at an apartment in Conneaut in northeastern Ohio, a 2009 complaint by the
Ohio Civil Rights Commission claims.

Grybosky, 81, told another tester alleging to be a single mother with a child that she could
rent only a downstairs unit at a higher cost, a second complaint claims. Both are alleged
violations of state and federal law.

The complaints were based on allegations filed with the commission in 2008 by Painesville,
Ohio-based Fair Housing Resource Center, an anti-discrimination group.

An administrative judge ruled against Grybosky last year, and the commission upheld the judge’s
ruling this summer.

At issue today are damages and attorneys’ fees facing Grybosky.

In March, the judge recommended that Grybosky pay $12,000 in actual damages and $10,000 in
punitive damages, along with $87,000 in attorneys’ fees to the commission and Fair Housing Resource
Center.

In late July, the commission modified the financial penalties, limiting them to $100 in damages
and about $9,000 in attorneys’ fees and travel costs.

The commission based that modification on Grybosky not having a previous history of
discrimination and the fact there were no actual victims.

But in August, the commission said it had changed its mind and would issue a new ruling
today.